<<"He says he wants to be forgiven," Sharpton said. "I hope he continues in that process. But we cannot afford a precedent established that the airways can commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism.">>
In other words, it's much bigger than Imus.
Two or three points I wanted to make:
By doing the right thing and canning this guy - - harshly and dramatically in the middle of his Telethon, because the network recognized that it was a symbolic issue and had to be dealt with symbolically, the symbolism had to be right - - the network made the statement that racism and sexism were front-and-centre issues to the mainstream of the American people and instantly marginalized Imus' defenders who had variously claimed (a) this was NBD or (b) Imus could once again apologize and play-act his way through various acts of contrition and once again get his ticket stamped to continue spewing his venom over the public airwaves (a variation of the "NBD" justification) or (c), not really a defence, but a playing of the "hypocrisy" card, that "others" (always un-named) are all doing it too, or that rappers say worse. Essentially the networks recognized the bogus nature of the latter "defence" and with regard to the first two, stated emphatically, (a) that this really IS a BFD, and (b) that in fact it's so big a deal that no apology can save his ass.
But aren't the networks really just responding to the sponsors who baled? Partially, sure, but who are the sponsors responding to? Slice it up any way you want motivationally, the bottom line is that a whole whack of commercially savvy and astute individuals in top-of-the-line positions seem to have taken a reading of America's soul (admittedly, not Mississippi's soul, not Alabama's soul) and determined that more folks than not just won't stand for this shit, that this can't be swept under the rug any more. Like it or not, this is a milestone day for America (one among many of course, and far from the most significant one) and it's one to be celebrated, though not for the racists and closet racists who remain diehard Imus fans, and there are still way too many of them. Nevertheless - - congratulations, America!
But isn't it all a big joke because rappers still rap and hip hoppers still hop? Bullshit and nonsense. Apples and oranges. Rappers and hip-hoppers are performance artists, nothing more, nothing less. They portray characters to an audience (which one survey says are mostly teenage suburban white males) which has equal access to slasher movies, hard- and soft-core porn and anything else the First Amendment guarantees and protects. They DON'T have prime-time access to every American living room. That's one umbrella they DON'T shelter under. The fact that most of their performances are accessed in ways meant to prevent minors or unsuspecting adults from accidentally witnessing them imprints them with a message that these guys are so marginal that ONLY America's devotion to freedom of speech permits their work to be enjoyed at all. And now Imus and his ilk are so categorized as well.
